POLITICAL NOTES

Otago Daily Times, Issue 13078, 14 September 1904, Page 4

POLITICAL NOTES

The readers of the "Essence of Parliament," contributed to Punch by "Toby, M.P.," need not be reminded of the succinct way in which that veracious ■ chronicler suras up in his diary a day's proceedings at -St. Stephen's. " Business done: After three weeks' talk, Address voted. Now for business." We can improve on that in New Zealand. The current session was opened on the 28th June. Yesterday, the of September, Parliament had : been in session'for eleven weeks. What has done ? The Address-in-Reply was disposed of after half a dozen speeches had been delivered, and tho Financial Statement was brought down' early—on tho 12th July. That certainly promised well. It cleared the way for the transaction of business. But what has happened since P The General' Estimates have partly been considered. The opportunity they have afforded for a discussion upon departmental administration has been used with not undue freedom, and certainly without abuse by members. Only one sitting a week is devoted, however, to the Committee'of Supply, that being Friday. Whenever Supply stands as an order of the day for Friday, the Speaker, in terms of tho Standing Orders, leaves the chair without putting the question. Consequently, by giving up Friday, and Friday only, to the Estimates, the Government avoids the risk, of which it is apparently fearful, of having Supply intercepted by a .motion -that might prove embarrassing to some of its supporters. The Public Works Estimates are, however, of more interest to members than the General Estimates are. And this year they are of espc-cial interest. l ( 'or has not the responsible Minister ominously intimated that the votes for public works will this year be considerably smaller than they were last year, and that the applications for roads alone will have to be reduced by about 90 per cent. ? Tho Government is feeling tho financial pinch and members are naturally curious to see how their respective districts are to faro under the pressure.

When the Estimates have all been voted there is, of course, no absolute, reason why the Government should not send the members packing off to their homes. But it is part of the Seddouian ■faith that'a session is a failure unless, there is a thumping big Statuto Book to show as its result. Mr Seddon boasted during the recess of the achievement Parliament accomplished last session in passing some 140 Acts. And 110 doubt lie will be unwilling that this record should not be surpassed in what, if ho carries his High Commis-. sionership proposal and after all accepts appointmont to the office, may bo his last session of Parliament. But, if so, he has so far achieved very little. The public of tile colony will, for its part,, liopo that he may not succeed in achieving much moro. It 13 somewliat impatient of the parliamentary mania for the passage of new Bills. It would desire that some of the existing statutes should be more fully tested in the light of experience before it lias a large batch. of fresh laws thrust upon it, of which the exact pin-port will only be ascertainable at the cost of- numerous and expensive prosecutions. And, arguing from this standpoint, it is probably grateful that the session has, up to the present point, been so unproductive. But there are still several weeks to go before, in, tho ordinary course, the prorogation of Parliament may be expected, sinco the session now regularly occupies four months and more, although not so many years ago its duration rarely exceeded thirteen weeks; and electors cannot breathe freely until tho actual closing ceremony has been performed. In the meantime, however, the Licensing Bill stands, in the ivay, and it is not improbable that, failing a compromise, such as seems a rather remote contingency, between the two extreme parties oil the liquor question, it will for some considerable time block Mr Seddon's legislative path. The Premier himself, in moving the second reading of tho Bill, spoke in moderate and sensible terms when lie made tliis appeal to the House: f ' Lot there be 110 personal feeling or political hostility, but go into the merits of the Bill. No reasonable amendment would be refused. What lie asked them to do was to read the Bill! a second time, go into committee with a determination to make the law as perfect as they could, nnd give an opportunity of seeing how the proposed legislation would work."

The annual report of the general manager of the Assets Realisation Board was included among the papers most recently presented to Parliament, and tho partnership the State has acquired in the Bank of New Zealand aiul the connection between the Bank and tho Board renders the document one of interest to the whole 1 community. The report is gratifying in nioro senses than one. It is satisfactory to know that the Board has during the past financial year moro fully justified its title than in some previous years when it was .apparently less intent upon realising tho properties entrusted to its care than it was in managing and working " them. Last year, however, sales to the extent of £286,350 were made as compared with £138,498 in the previous year. It is true that the sale to tlw Government for land settlement purposes of one property—the Matamata/ Estate—accounts for £120,745 out of 1 the total amount of the realisations, and. tjiat payment for this estate was not made by > the Government until after tho financial year had closed, and it is also true that the lioartl has still a large number of properties, representing a considerable value, on it? hands. But it is at all events consoling 'to know that a somewhat moro rapid rate of realisation is being shown. Mr Foster, general manager of the company, defends the policy the Board has adopted by stating that its effect.has been substantially to lessen the deficiency to be. ultimately made up. "Had tho Board rushed the properties on to what has until recently been an unwilling market," lie says, " t{ie loss ou actual values would have been very great." And ho quotes figures to show that in respect of the Rangiuhi, Ohaniti, Matamata, . and Waihaorunga properties the prices eventually realised by the Board duced £74,425 more than would have been obtained if sales had been effected at the beat previous offers in each case. That. undoubtedly seems an, effective vindication of the Board's policy -in these particular instances, but there has been, as Mr Foster admits, a general riso in land values since the banking legislation was passed, so much so that • for some few weeks past there lias been a mild boom in land.- especially iu tho North Island. And 1 it is just becauso there seems a danger of the Board missing tho wave of high values that some- 1 what greater energy in realising i$ regarded as desirable. It is satisfactory; • however, to know that tho station jlro; perties that are. boiuc worked ?

Board are yielding a profit—last year of £17,279, which, though it represented only 2.12 per cent, on book cost, is not lo be despised.'

From the report of the Assets Realisation Board to that of the chairman of .the Board of Land Purchase Commissioners the transition is easy. The one Board is concerned in large measure in disposing of estates of land; the other is solely occupied in dealing with offers for the sale of estates to the State. Nor do the duties of the Land Purchase Commissioners partake at all of the nature of n sinecure. Last financial year ''about 81 estates" and in the previous year "about 150 estates" were offered to the Government—apparently it is impossible for the Commissioners 'to-state definitely the number of properties that were placed under offer to them. Obviously, however, there are a considerable number of land-owners who believe it would be to their advantage to dispose of their properties to the State. We need not discuss the motives which have prompted them. It may be that in some cases the owners are nnable to carry ou the properties profitably. That there are land-owners in the colony, wlio lose money on their estates we know on the authority of the Minister of Lands, who, with questionable taste, dragged the private affairs of several members of the land-owning classes before the House in the recent land debate. Thus we find him saying (we omit the names he mentioned):

In the district I came .from you will find over 00,000 acres that the brothers had. Tlhey got the land at £0. an acre, and they had it for .10 years, and the whola of it is now gene from them. They have hardly an acre left. The money-lender was there, and after Ihey got the land they never got rid of their liabilities. One brother had snld his land to the other brother and got about £90,000 for his share, and that added to the mortgage, so that thpv were never able to relieve themselves. They lost a large fortune owing to the freehold. Go across tho river to the district whera I live, anil you como to tho land once owned by and —. Thcv had 60,000 acres. They paid £1 an acre on it. It is first-class land, situated in Xorth Otago. Who has got it now? Why, they asked the Government to purchase it when they could no nothing else with it. And so on. It may be, therefore, that some of the 80 odd estates that were offered to the Government last year were placed under disposal because the owners "could do nothing else" with tho land. Tho total number of estates purchased by the Commissioners during ihe year was, however, only three. Besides these, one was taken compulsorily, and the purchase of seven estates acquired in tho previous year was completed, the total transactions for tho 12 months representing eleven estates, for which the State paid £403,610, while expenses brought the total outlay to £503,425. So far as the transactions of tho past are concerned, tho report shows that the total purchases to the 31st March last involved an expenditure of £'3,110,093, that the interest charges had amounted to £422,852, and that the amount received in rent was £589,111, so that an apparent gain of £100,259 has accrued.